Rfid Toys: 11cool Projects for Home, Office and Entertainment (Extremetech)

Radio frequency identification now belongs to the masses, and it lets you control all sorts of things. Like access to your front door. Or valuables in an RFID-enabled safe. You can corral your stuff within an RFID-monitored perimeter, or build a shelf that tells you when you're out of hot sauce. This book shows you how, with step-by-step instructions, illustrations, photos, and a list of the tools and tech- nology you need for every project. It even supplies the lowdown on read/write tags and—for the truly extreme—implantable chips.

The toys

Complete parts inventory and detailed, illustrated instructions for these exciting RFID projects

1. Home door lock
2. Vehicle access
3. Computer logon
4. Electronic safe
5. Smart shelves
6. Doggie door
7. Object locator
8. Theft alert
9. Handheld scanner
10. Implantable chips

* Readers learn how to build their own ultimate RFID projects with a few simple tools, some off-the-shelf parts, and this book-no surgery required!

* Similar in theory to bar code identification, RFID (radio frequency identification) systems consist of an antenna and receiver, and are now available for hobbyists and hackers to tinker with

* Some of the featured "bleeding-edge" projects show readers how to unlock their front door wirelessly, access their car without inserting a key, add security to home computers, and control the lights in a room

* Safe at home-readers learn to build an RFID-activated safe, allow only the family dog to come and go through the doggie door, and locate items anywhere in the house with RFID tracking

Readers learn how to build their own ultimate RFID projects with a few simple tools, some off-the-shelf parts, and this book– no surgery required!

Similar in theory to bar code identification, RFID (radio frequency identification) systems consist of an antenna and receiver, and are now available for hobbyists and hackers to tinker with

Some of the featured " bleeding-edge" projects show readers how to unlock their front door wirelessly, access their car without inserting a key, add security to home computers, and control the lights in a room

Safe at home– readers learn to build an RFID-activated safe, allow only the family dog to come and go through the doggie door, and locate items anywhere in the house with RFID tracking

Amal Graafstra is an entrepreneur and jack-of-many-trades. Currently involved in no less than three different companies, he still finds time to think up interesting ways to apply various technologies in his daily life and wield a soldering iron from time to time. Amal is CEO of Morpheus Inc., a computer and networking company that specializes in supplying managed terminal environments to the medical industry.

He is also president of txtGroups Inc. (www.txtgroups.com), an SMS text messaging company soon to launch group messaging services across Canada, with plans for expansion to the US, UK, and Australia.

Since learning about the contactless RFID technology used in cats and dogs for identification, Amal wanted to leverage that technology himself. Getting an implant meant there was no need to carry an RFID access card around and he could implement his own RFID access control systems instead of buying expensive off-the-shelf products. Soon after getting his first implant (www.amal.net/rfid.html) and posting some pictures of the process for a few friends, word quickly spread over the Internet and soon he found himself talking to everyone from industry players to clergy to book publishers about RFID technology and its possibilities.

Amal Graafstra can be reached at amal@amal.net.

Acknowledgments.

Introduction.

Chapter 1: Getting Started with RFID.

Chapter 2: Getting in the Front Door.

Chapter 3: Stepping into Your Car.

Chapter 4: Logging into Windows XP Using RFID.

Chapter 5: Building an RFID-Enabled Safe.

Chapter 6: Taking Inventory with an RFID-Enabled Smart Shelf.

Chapter 7: Letting Fido in with an RFID Pet Door.

Chapter 8: Tracking Employees and Time with Active RFID.

Chapter 9: Monitoring Assets and Sending Alerts.

Chapter 10: The Three R’s — Reading, wRiting, and RFID.

Chapter 11: Extreme RFID.

Appendix A: Hardware Overview.

Index.